This thread because William asked and I don’t need much encouragement.
Kailhosru Sorabji – 1892-1989 born and lived his whole life in England. His mother a Sicilian Soprano and his father an engineer and Parsi from Bombay.
The official website is http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jwapnick/sorabji/sor_arch.html unfortunately it hasn’t been updated for seven (?) years but all the historical and work details are there.
He has written a huge body of works mostly for solo piano or piano and orchestra. Many of his works are of exceptional length and complexity. From the 1930’s until the late 70’s early 80’s he imposed a prohibition on anyone performing his works. Late in his life, after much persuasion by friends and devotees, he relented and his works are increasingly being performed and recorded. A search of AMAZON will probably turn up about 15 recordings and there are more in the pipeline.
Whilst he has written many works of “normal” length 10, 20 30 minutes, many are exceptionally long. Of his solo piano works 9 are 30 to 120 minutes, 4 are 120 to 240 minutes, 6 between 240 and 360 minutes, one of 480 and one of 540 minutes. His piano writing is of unprecedented complexity and virtuosity always three staves often four and occasionally 5, 6 or 7.
Virtually all of his shorter works have now been performed and many recorded. Of his longer works Opus Clavicembalisticum at 270 minutes has been performed around 13 times and recorded twice most famously by John Ogden on the Altarus label probably one of the great records of pianistic achievement in the entire piano oeuvre.
More of his longer works are now being performed most notably Fredrik Ullen is preparing the entire 100 transcendental studies for the BIS label on 7 CDs running in at about 480 minutes. The world premier of his 2nd Organ Symphony is scheduled for this year by Kevin Bowen and is likely to last, including intervals, about 7 hours.
A brief attempt to try and describe the music? – wildly virtuosic and complex, at turns sublimely beautiful and frighteningly cataclysmic, he has a huge respect for the Baroque forms, the fugue, passacaglia, variations, grounds as well as the more romantic nocturne and fantasy. He has influences from the east and was an admirer of Busoni, Alkan, Skryabin, Debussy but has a voice which is entirely his own.
The work I am involved with is one of his few orchestral works his “Jami” Symphony. Written 1942-51, like so many of his works this is unperformed and currently only exists in the original manuscript. I am editing this score with Sibelius to produce a performing score and parts to encourage performance. It is scored for very large orchestra 6 winds, 8 horns, 6 trumpets, 4 trombones, 2 tubas, 2 sets of timpani, Glock, Xylo, celesta, set of tuned gongs, full percussion, 2 harps, organ, piano, strings 24, 24, 16, 16, 12 and two large choirs (voiceless throughout) and baritone solo in the last movement. The score 824 pages of A2 and probably last about 270 minutes. Like his other music it is complex to the nth degree the strings always in ten parts often 16 and as many as 24. The two chorus are always eight parts often sixteen and as many as 32. The score is usually 40 to 60 staves but at it’s peak could be 100+ (how will GS and VSL cope with all that?) I have been editing the score for nearly two years and am just about to reach half way.
The likelihood of a live performance must be very remote (although Brian’s Gothic gets done occasionally). It is my long-term goal to create a computer-realized performance of the work with my new GigaStudio and VSL tools. Hopefully by the time I’ve finished editing the score in Sibelius I will have mastered the intricacies of GigaStudio and VSL and any outstanding problems of using Sibelius as the sequencer will have been worked out (otherwise I’m gonna have to learn how to use a sequencer as well).
So there you have it.
Questions welcomed, referrals to a psychiatrist not unexpected.
Kailhosru Sorabji – 1892-1989 born and lived his whole life in England. His mother a Sicilian Soprano and his father an engineer and Parsi from Bombay.
The official website is http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jwapnick/sorabji/sor_arch.html unfortunately it hasn’t been updated for seven (?) years but all the historical and work details are there.
He has written a huge body of works mostly for solo piano or piano and orchestra. Many of his works are of exceptional length and complexity. From the 1930’s until the late 70’s early 80’s he imposed a prohibition on anyone performing his works. Late in his life, after much persuasion by friends and devotees, he relented and his works are increasingly being performed and recorded. A search of AMAZON will probably turn up about 15 recordings and there are more in the pipeline.
Whilst he has written many works of “normal” length 10, 20 30 minutes, many are exceptionally long. Of his solo piano works 9 are 30 to 120 minutes, 4 are 120 to 240 minutes, 6 between 240 and 360 minutes, one of 480 and one of 540 minutes. His piano writing is of unprecedented complexity and virtuosity always three staves often four and occasionally 5, 6 or 7.
Virtually all of his shorter works have now been performed and many recorded. Of his longer works Opus Clavicembalisticum at 270 minutes has been performed around 13 times and recorded twice most famously by John Ogden on the Altarus label probably one of the great records of pianistic achievement in the entire piano oeuvre.
More of his longer works are now being performed most notably Fredrik Ullen is preparing the entire 100 transcendental studies for the BIS label on 7 CDs running in at about 480 minutes. The world premier of his 2nd Organ Symphony is scheduled for this year by Kevin Bowen and is likely to last, including intervals, about 7 hours.
A brief attempt to try and describe the music? – wildly virtuosic and complex, at turns sublimely beautiful and frighteningly cataclysmic, he has a huge respect for the Baroque forms, the fugue, passacaglia, variations, grounds as well as the more romantic nocturne and fantasy. He has influences from the east and was an admirer of Busoni, Alkan, Skryabin, Debussy but has a voice which is entirely his own.
The work I am involved with is one of his few orchestral works his “Jami” Symphony. Written 1942-51, like so many of his works this is unperformed and currently only exists in the original manuscript. I am editing this score with Sibelius to produce a performing score and parts to encourage performance. It is scored for very large orchestra 6 winds, 8 horns, 6 trumpets, 4 trombones, 2 tubas, 2 sets of timpani, Glock, Xylo, celesta, set of tuned gongs, full percussion, 2 harps, organ, piano, strings 24, 24, 16, 16, 12 and two large choirs (voiceless throughout) and baritone solo in the last movement. The score 824 pages of A2 and probably last about 270 minutes. Like his other music it is complex to the nth degree the strings always in ten parts often 16 and as many as 24. The two chorus are always eight parts often sixteen and as many as 32. The score is usually 40 to 60 staves but at it’s peak could be 100+ (how will GS and VSL cope with all that?) I have been editing the score for nearly two years and am just about to reach half way.
The likelihood of a live performance must be very remote (although Brian’s Gothic gets done occasionally). It is my long-term goal to create a computer-realized performance of the work with my new GigaStudio and VSL tools. Hopefully by the time I’ve finished editing the score in Sibelius I will have mastered the intricacies of GigaStudio and VSL and any outstanding problems of using Sibelius as the sequencer will have been worked out (otherwise I’m gonna have to learn how to use a sequencer as well).
So there you have it.
Questions welcomed, referrals to a psychiatrist not unexpected.